Today, it is already possible to establish a company for the most part online via service providers such as firma.de. From August 2022, it is expected that it will be possible to form a GmbH (remote formation) entirely online - without the founders having to appear in person at the on-site notary appointment. You can find out more about the upcoming online formation and the new draft law here.
The introduction is planned for August 1, 2022. As early as February 2021, a draft law for the introduction of a notarial online procedure for GmbH formations was passed by the Federal Cabinet. The new law means that founders no longer have to appear in person for notarization. It will also affect other applications to the commercial and cooperative registers.
How can I establish a UG or GmbH as quickly as possible before August 2022?
Currently, founders still have to do a great deal on their own. In order to implement the formation as efficiently and error-free as possible, they can benefit from a service provider such as firma.de. The team of firma.de accompanies your complete foundation phase up to the successful entry into the commercial register and business registration. In addition, firma.de coordinates and arranges the appointments for the notarial certification of the foundation on-site and the opening of the company account for you. If you also book the express option, your incorporation will be given top priority in processing and can be registered after just 2-3 weeks.
With the upcoming online notary appointment for GmbH formations, it is possible to settle digitally what was previously only possible in person at a notary's office. The most important innovations of such a remote formation are:
In this way, founding teams can register in the commercial register from the comfort of their office and receive advice from the notary via video conference.
According to the draft law, the following registrations in the commercial and cooperative registers will be possible online:
Yes. The notarial online procedure is only to be understood as a supplementary offer. The on-site notary appointment can still be used.What steps are required for the online formation of a GmbH or UG?
There are only minor additional costs for "online founders":
The other items of the notary fees remain the same and are also fixed by law.
The Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection had drafted the "Law on the Implementation of the Digitalization Directive (DiRUG)" with the aim of transposing the requirements of Directive (EU) 2019/1151 into German law.
Also, the digitization initiative will finally make it possible to reduce the time, costs, and administrative effort involved in setting up companies. By enabling the online formation of limited liability companies, Germany wants to catch up with countries like Estonia, which are far ahead in the digitization of public administration.